Wee Siew Kim’s defence of his daughter
MP Wee Siew Kim’s defence of his daughter is terribly ironic.
And it offends me more than the contentious comment she made in the first place.
Wee tries to reframe this by saying it’s all a language issue (“The language was stronger than what most people could take”). But it isn’t. “Life will kick you in the balls” and “the world is about winners and losers” isn’t just strong language. These are forceful viewpoints, which of course anyone is entitled to have. But let’s be clear on one thing – it isn’t just the language that offends, it’s the content as well.
Point number 2 in his defence – “But she wrote in a private blog and I feel that her privacy has been violated”. Hmm, I’m just wondering how people from his Party would feel if someone makes defamatory remarks about them in a “private blog” and claims violation of privacy as a defence in a defamation suit.
Wee reminds us that these are the “rantings of an 18-year-old”. Ok, I thought 18 means you become legally an adult and can get into real trouble with the law for doing and saying angry and violent things which incidentally is what rantings mean.
Wee confuses me much later by saying “I will not gag her, since she’s 18 and should be able to stand by what she says”. Ok, it was like he said look she’s only 18 and thats why its understandable that she says angry and violent things but since she’s 18, she’s old enough for me to do nothing at all.
Nice.
Here is the part that offends me most: “her basic point is reasonable, that is, that a well-educated university graduate who works for a multinational company should not be bemoaning about the Government and get on with the challenges in life”. Ok, again I’m confused (it’s probably just me). During the elections, people like Wee tells me vote for me and you’ll get lifts on every floor, good governance, more good years, etc. After the elections, the message seems to be hey it’s not about me, it’s about you so get on with life, be self-reliant.
Where is the engagement? Where is the compassion? How can we be a more caring and compassionate society when leaders like Wee do not allow their compassion to come forth (I’m sorry. My daughter said somethings that hurt people and I’m sorry that people got hurt. The end)?
Will everyone be “the richer for it”, as Wee claims? I doubt it. His defence of his daughter confirms what I already know and experience everyday – there is no compassion in society and there are always excuses where bad things happen to good, defenceless people.
In a world where you are the loser, Life will kick you in the balls.
Totally agree with you. Even a MP can say this, I don’t know how am I going to have the confidence to believe that our government is on our side and taking care of us. Seems like they are taking care of themselves more. Compassionate society? We might have to wait for one more century to achieve that, maybe. It may not be such a bad idea to be a quitter after all. I can find a better life somewhere (at least a happier one) being a second-class citizen in another country rather than be a second class citizen in MY own country (with all these elitism going on).
Sir. I told you you’re intelligent.
sir,
the truth is we’re intelligent cos there are a lot of stupid people around.
it’s a relative thing..
mr wee, it’s time to lick your own wound, inflicted by you & your daughter’s ridiculous views. i am more worried about the type of mp we have to help us through during hard times. i am certainly glad you are not my mp.
I have no idea what;s going on back in sunny singapore…
True, their tails are out. We should be weary and remember (always by hard) such danger live in every day of our life. I felt Ms wee is a pitiful person beyond resonable doubt now and not worth getting scholarship out of ordinary folks’ taxpayer money.
Outstanding comments. I wish it can be broadcast more. Do the people a favor and spread your comments.
And you may want to consider the fact that a well educated graduate is concerned about the less fortunate and speaking on their behalf and being shot down by a people’s MP. Who will ever speak on behalf of the poor when such elitism rules?
well said
I totally agree with your sentiments! How can a MP who is supposed to be the one of the top talents our government had handpicked through vigorous rounds of integrity and competence assessment cum tea sessions turn out to be an indifferent, arrogant and totally uncompassionate person with elite mentality. It sends shiver down my spine that majority of our leaders share Mr Wee’s uncompassionate elitism mentality, value systems and characters as the sayings goes” Feathers of the same kind flock together”.
Don’t get me wrong! I am not against elitism but uncompassionate and indifferent exhibits of elitism. I am a firm believer of meritrocacy system and believe that those who work hard and excel should be rewarded accordingly. In any society, there are bound to be those who are more capable, smarter and thus excel better in life and thus are seen as the elite of the society. As an elite, it is important to realise that you are in better position and endorsed by the people to help those less off improve their lives. Such an elite shall command the respects and the support of the grassroots.
I sincerely hope that the leaders of our nation take heed not to let the meritrocacy system that has worked for us since independence to become an elitrocacy system that divides and widen the social and economical gaps of our citizens. Remember that your elistism status belies in the power of the people!
Excellent comments. If we think of Singapore as one big commercial enterprise and the MPs are the managers, then the perspective will be clearer and we can understand the thinking behind the talk. Singapore is a country and the government is duty bound to take care of ALL citizens. In any society, there are bound to be the unfortunate ones and we as a society will be judged on how we treat them. This is the soul of the society. On that socre, in my opinion, Singapore has failed miserably.
I agree with you 100%!!! The indifference, arrogance and lack of compassion in Singapore’s supposed elite figures have once again become apparent. Suddenly the words “Fixing the opposition” and “Peanuts” come to mind now. I honestly hope Singaporeans will finally wake up and do some thorough and much needed soul searching and THINK carefully about the kind of people they have elected to serve them.
Agreed! Behaind that facade of concern for the people, from time to time you see the true arrogance and lack of compassion of the elitists when they say things like ‘fixing’ others and ‘only a few dollars more’. When you don’t earn much, a few dollars means more – it could be $20 to the poor.
Like daughter, like father. He is the President of a certain big company you know! Don’t play play. Can he understand the plight of the less blessed?
The scary thing about this whole episode is that there are many more such MPs around who share the same views as this MP Mr Wee.
Like the NKF issue, you won’t know anything until they start shooting their own feet, or in gamer’s language, SELF-PWN.
And the MOST scary thing is, 66.6% of voters continue to be deceived and vote for these uncaring elites who doesn’t give a shit about them.
The government has to do something to Mr Wee…. or lose credibility
hi castello,
Elitism is different from meritocracy. It is the belief that the views of a selected group of people, the elites, should be regarded as carrying the most weight than those of others (the non-elite). And hence the elites are deemed fit to rule while views of the public can be disregarded. And because more resources and opportunities are allocated to the elites, the accomplishments will reaffirm the original belief that they are more deserving of those opportunities. That is wats happening in Sg now. Elitism is fostering a divide and affecting a class struggle. WSM and his dad are nothing more than economic and class bigots.
Sir. Remember me when you become famous.
Elite or not elite. Leaders or not. They are ultimately civil servents mind you. Serving the community is their responsibility. Not just a pretty badge. However, by the next GE, everyone’s going to forget this anyway. Sigh.
Singapore will be a lot sunnier if govt MPs and their brood stop crapping their so-called “intelligence” on their fellow citizens. What really pisses me off is that HRH Wee Shu Min hasn’t even got a job yet and yet she would share her “young & motivated wisdom” with all the old and unmotivated citizens of Singapore!!!
He blunders!!!…..wonder how would wsk will fair when addressing much bigger and demanding national issues in his constituency?
He is not even sorry. I think he should just resign from public office and concentrate on his capitalist endeavour. Its obvious he does not have the calliing nor the qualities of servanthood.
As for the young lady, God bless her, cos if not the crash landing will be too tough for her sheltered life.
this will blow over and business as usual:>
the one common thing abt how ppl wants to solve problems has always been to deal with the symptoms and not the root cause.
which means to say, there shall be another repeat episode of some kind down the road before we hit the big one that shakes everything up i suppose
enjoy the ride and the rhetorics. nothing more with the roots intact.
Paris Hilton is not a unique phenomenon
Sadly, Ms Wee’s outburst is a reflection of the values of the people who brought her up. If you think this is just a faux pas of a misguided youth, wait till you check out what the adults in her league are saying.
“Textbooks don’t make your daughter smart too. Swallowing her history, economics, and general paper texts, and interpreting them incorrectly, as well as dramatizing events are proven her stupidity. Has she not learned from the events of Russian, where the Tsar and the royal family enjoyed a languish lifestyle while the the majority of Russians (peasants) by the way, suffered in the cold and had nothing to eat?
If both of you presume the ‘elitist’ mindset is the way to go, that simply means, you’re aware that we should be having a revolution some time soon aye?
Does that sound ridiculous? Why, wasn’t that what you were saying ah girl?
Grow up. Face Reality.
National Shame for you eh? Bravo. Let’s see who will employ you in the future.
Cheers.”
Obviously, this MP’s daughter has been pampered. She has lived a sheltered life, and uses whatever textbook knowledge she has to live in the real world.
Sadly though, she has failed, judging from this entire fiasco.
Look, if she was that smart, she would have known how to word her entry well enough so that it wouldn’t offend so many people at a go. If she had that much more common sense, it wouldn’t have sounded so offensive.
Perhaps her education also has proven useless. Is this what our junior colleges are teaching our students? Especially top ones like RJC? Hail the education system and their produce then. (:
Long live Mr Wee and his Superior Line of Descendants.
By the way, I don’t see any reason as to why the WEE GUY should remain a MP, after all this episode has shown us his mentality, and his beliefs.
Obviously he can’t down to the level of the normal the layman.
Textbooks don’t make your daughter smart too. Swallowing her history, economics, and general paper texts, and interpreting them incorrectly, as well as dramatizing events are proven her stupidity. Has she not learned from the events of Russian, where the Tsar and the royal family enjoyed a languish lifestyle while the the majority of Russians (peasants) by the way, suffered in the cold and had nothing to eat?
If both of you presume the ‘elitist’ mindset is the way to go, that simply means, you’re aware that we should be having a revolution some time soon aye?
Does that sound ridiculous? Why, wasn’t that what you were saying ah girl?
Grow up. Face Reality.
National Shame for you eh? Bravo. Let’s see who will employ you in the future.
Cheers.
hi
Why aren’t such news broadcast in the newspapers or media?
i m teribbly sad to hear of such remarks from an “elite”…..
Dear Alex,
The answer is simple, becuase we do not want public anger.
And the papers would not want to be pinned for causing this stir.
It is already a stir in the blogs and forums.
So they have to spare the poor naive Shu Min and his sympathatic but practical father.
Well, it is a choice, the papers choose to not stir up trouble.
In any case Shu Min was the victim becuase her privacy was violated, get the facts?
I just wonder how the convicted racist bloggers would feel when they hear Mr. Wee’s comment on her dughter’s privacy being violated when before their sentence the judge told them that if it is a blog posted for public viewing, it is no longer a privacy.
Period.
[...] Wee Siew Kim’s defence of his daughter. Posted by isaiahlim. Thoughts about u PAP MP parental unit’s response. [...]
“show me your tits Shu Min?”
http://www.yeocheowtong.com
i think its very good and enlightening this topic surfaced. We can learn a lot even from bad stuff. Most importantly, we now know that some of our teenagers’ thinkings are like this. Maybe, its time to put more emphasis on moral values and social studies in our education system.
i remember reading an article from straits times regarding the lower IQ teenager who got caned and this prominent guy mention that if we pardon him then on the same note we should double the penalty for smarter people. I’m sorry if my facts not up to date. But what I’m trying to drive at, is all these years we have been very successful towards racial harmony, but towards general considerations and sensitivities among fellow singaporeans, they are on the decline. just my 5 cents worth of thought. (pa si pun ai hia). We have been pushing for success. That’s good but shouldn’t we sometimes pause and think about other possible repercussion.
when leaders are enticed into service by hugh salaries and bonuses,
we can deduct away the emotional compassionate caring aspect
of it. Its no longer a calling for them to service but like another job
in the dog-eat-dog corporate world
Now, how many of you voted for that party? Made a mistake?
we learn from mistakes…
Anybody want to kick some elitist balls? Oops, no balls. LOL
The girl’s mentality I call youth’s folly, but when the dad, who’s supposed to serve the masses, makes his, I start to wonder what criteria the government use when selecting our MPs. I started a blog to voice my own views at http://walkthestreetoflife.blogspot.com/
Hope “my privacy will not be iviolated”
[...] Wee Siew Kim’s defence of his daughter [...]
like father like daughter. In the daughter’s case, she appears to be too full of herself. Look, just because you are in RJC and can string together some sentences with big words doesn’t mean you can walk around and act like the “sheriff” of the town here. Earn your badge first, young lady. Same goes for many of you JC and univ. students.
Though we yet to know clearly what brutal truth MP Wee implies, but his daughter do learn the brutal truth that there is no such thing as private blog in public internet !!!
This is quite disconcerting too.
http://news.asiaone.com/st/st_20061028_58441.html
This father used to be my MP, sad to say, he has no heart for the residents. Whatever he did is more for show only. Glad that people now get to see his true colours. PAP needs to reconsider having him in their party if they want to win in the next election.
The Straits Times probably could have displayed a bit more sensitivity in positioning the articles in Saturday’s papers.
Elite is only a label. Virtually every society has them–except perhaps early cavemen, then again one might argue there that the one with biggest club and fiercest voice is the elite.
No matter what their path to that strata, those in the elite who forget the other stratas of society below them, or those who behave insensitively toward them will always incur wrath. Always. So act uncaringly, step on others, snub those serving you, and there will be people ready to rip you apart like hungry lions. You can see examples around the world. Throw a phone at the hotel front desk, yell racially insensitive things while drunk, and see what happened when the media reported it. Ok, those are celebrities you argue. To me, no different–they are rich, think they are important. Look at China. When a wealthy man’s chauffeur-driven car ran into a cyclist earlier this year, a mob started and even the police station sheltering the rich businessman got hit.
Probably every religion teaches people to treat others with respect. You don’t go around stepping on others’ faces. Even if you want to make others aware of the truth, there are graceful ways to do it. Some of the top executives of MNCs I have worked with show more humility than our grassroot leaders. When they have give a piece of their mind to someone, they do it behind close door, direct to that person–never in front of others. They do not need to crush people under their feet in order to show power.
This incident shows one area that our youngsters are probably lacking in. And it may be an area that schools and parents should look into; notice I include parents. Humility is a soft skill–one of the real “heartwares”. I don’t know if the PM was talking about the same thing, but to me, those who are in the upper echelons of society without humility will never get true respect.
yah… let’s look out where will Wee be in the next General Election.
I agree with Figthing Fit. I too see that all youngsters have the same “problem” as Ms Wee. Today in our education system, paper chase is no. 1. Students are judged good or no good only by the grades they score. There is no humility, no respect. Here Ms Wee, from the “upper echelons” writes “uncaringly”. There, at the not-so-elitist echelons, youngsters shout at maids, waste food… Our society is falling apart….
Reminds me of my GP essay I had to write during my mid years:
“Is meritocracy a facade for elitism? Discuss.”
If only I had the Wee incident to bolster my arguments. Ahahahaha.
this is elitism to the extremely.
Her intelligence is not her effort. It is god sent. what she deserved to be intelligent is not her doing.
One day when she contracted some deadly disease is also not her doing, is god sent again. Everything is act of god.
Nothing to do with her. You may ask Chua sister after the breast cancer, what she think now, will she think she is smart, dont think so, all resign to god.
The god thing i don’t quite catch but i sort of think that shu min thinks that everyone gets equal oppurtunities. Oh and she thinks that elites are ELITES (bold caps italicised underlined red) and the others are CRAP(bold caps italicised underlined red).
I believe all of us has been through/felt the lives of other less fortunate ppl at some point in life, enabling us to have empathy. Sometimes i think that empathy should be something that is natural to a human, if you manage to see everyone as an equal. There is nothing wrong with judging a person by his/her merit, but i think everyone has some merit, more or less.
She seems to think that anyone who isn’t classified as ELITE has nothing, feels nothing, wants nothing, and is capable of nothing.
There is a difference in status because man made them to be so. View this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0gUchvopOc (can skip the front part, total 5 clips, but the 1st clip tells all)
So what Ms Wee displays is just a reflection of her own upbringing andwhat’s going on in her house.
Ms Wee needs to understand that everything happens because there is a comparison.
If there’s no poor, how will there be rich people.
If there’s no non-elite, how will there be elite people like her?If there’s no someone with low EQ like her, how do I know now that I have better EQ than a GCE “O” level winner.
We do not want to kick Mr. Wee Siew Kim in the Balls nor do We want to kick Ms. Wee Shu Min in the Pussy.
We just DO NOT WANT MR. WEE SIEW KIM to continue to be a Member of Parliament under our Wise Leader’s GRC…..nor any other GRC.
Mr. Wee should have enough dignity left in him to QUIT POLITICS since He does not have the Qualitties needed to be a Good MP.
Lighten up, it’s all wayang here
I agree with Bobby that Wee Siew Kim should quit politics if he has the guts. With his kind of quality and inhumane attitude how he he govern and care for people. He is a shame on PEOPLE’s Action Party because he is not for people but for himself and his stupid elitist daughter. I hope all her classmates will boycott her in school. Look out for her name in future…her connection will probably give her a President’s scholarship and find her working in some big foreign MNC through connection. In know of a lot of stupid people in their 40-50 who were retrenched but found jobs in GLC through PAP connections. If u don’t hv grassroots connection …sorry u will hv to eat grass, thanks to PAP.
Like i say, if we possess some good quality in life, we feel superior to other less fortunate, despise them, blaming them for not as good, less motivated. When we are struck with some unfortunate thing, we ask why me ?
If we are blessed with some good thing, be more empathy with less fortunate.
If we are cursed with unfortunate, do not be jealous to those very privileged.
Hardship or smooth sailing. be blessed with peaceful mind.
Accept your karmar. Do good thing and right thing in your present life.
If you feel very angry with ms Wee, that also reflect how intolerance we are.
She will understand one day. we will understand one day. but some never. but some much earlier to attain internal peacefulness.
If you are very gifted, but with uncontented mind, it is a suffering to you.
If you are less fortunate, but accept and contented, you have attained something.
Do not get agitated, do not get angry, do not get jealous, do not curse. have some peaceful mind, do what is right, do what is good.
This is the greatest virtue that you are bestowed, not intelligence, not ambition, not good writing, not 10As etc.
Omg, just saw her pics… she is damm ugly… the mole the face and that.. tits… gosh. love hating this kinda bit*h.
Shu min… you reading this?
Silly words from an ugly girl
Silly words from an ugly girl.. who cares?
Everyone please write in to paphq@pap.org.sg and ask our dear MP to step down. Else this episode will be swept under the carpet again and all our taxpayer’s money will go on to pay for his dear daughter’s expensive holidays.
I am sick and tired of the PAP saying one thing and doing another.
Lets prove Logically that Mr W is like his daughter in terms of personality:
1) A person’s personality is determined by his or her genes, and by the environment.
2) Mr W and his daughter share a common gene pool. (Father and Daughter)
3) Mr W and his daughter share the same physical environment. (ie. their house)
Therefore, they have the same personality.
B4 election, gave me a drumstick … after election, going to take a whole chicken from me … oh ya .. elites are suppose to be very good in math ….
I applaud you for such an excellent entry. Being an 18 year old Singaporean myself, I agree that elitism is consuming our society.
What Shu Min said totally disgusted me, and to be honest, I feel that a lot of Singaporeans are being portrayed as “low-class” compared to their more Westernized, rich, beautiful and intelligent fellow citizens.
What’s worse is that the government condones this. And civil servants (the ones at the bottom who work to get policies rolling for the Ministers to look good), are being stifled in their attempts to make Singapore a better place to live in.
I don’t know, but something’s got to change if our country is going to be heading to a better path.